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Is Barack Obama a Spiritual Leader?
Loose Canon is not a spiritual person. (She believes in the teachings of the Magisterium and the unchanging reality of truth.) Baptist minister Albert Mohler has, no doubt, quite a few reservations about the dear old Magisterium. But he also sees the peril of the sentimental spiritualism that is spreading so rapidly:
"Hypermodern America has become a collectivity of 'spiritualities' even as the contours of American culture become increasingly secularized. How is this possible? The emergence of spirituality as an alternative to historic Christianity is itself a product of secularism--offering universal 'meaning' without doctrine, truth, or specific content."
Quoting a column by Newsday's James Pinkerton, I previously noted that any kind of religious expression might be beneficial to Republicans and harmful to Democratic aspirations. Is spirituality, however, good for the Democratic Party?
Mohler reports that Leigh E. Schmidt, a Princeton religion professor, has argued that progressives should embrace spirituality. It's a fascinating hypothesis--so interesting that I hope you'll allow me to quote at length, beginning with a description of spirituality in the 19th century, as expressed by an abolitionist turned colonel in the Civil War:
"Schmidt also points to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a radical abolitionist who later served as a colonel in an African-American regiment in the Civil War. Higginson took Thoreau and Algier one step further, arguing that Americans should simply embrace spirituality as a diverse testimony to one fundamental reality. In Higginson's words: 'I have worshiped in an Evangelical church when thousands rose to their feet at the motion of one hand. I have worshiped in a Roman Catholic church when the lifting of one finger broke the motionless multitude into twinkling motion, till the magic sign was made, and all was still once more. But I never for an instant have supposed that this concentrated moment of devotion was more holy or more beautiful than when one cry from a minaret hushes a Mohammedan city to prayer, or when, at sunset, the low invocation, 'Oh! The gem in the lotus--oh! The gem in the lotus,' goes murmuring, like the cooing of many doves, across the vast surface of Tibet.'
"As Schmidt explains, Higginson's vision called for 'a cosmopolitan piety in which religious identities were open, fluxional, and sympathetic rather than closed, fixed, and proselytizing.'
"Schmidt sees a political possibility behind his analysis of America's religious landscape. A proponent of 'progressive' causes, Schmidt believes that American political liberals should embrace spirituality as a means of countering the influence of conservatives and traditional Christians....
"Interestingly, Schmidt points to Sen. Barack Obama, the recently elected senator from Illinois who has emerged as one of the leading lights in the Democratic Party. Obama, Schmidt advises, wants to reconnect progressive politics with religious vision.'"
With all due respect to Senator Obama, LC remains non-spiritual. Mohler concludes:
"Spirituality is all that is left when truth claims are removed. Spirituality represents little more than an effort to claim higher "values" without the demands of truth, revelation, and obedience.
"Of all people, Christians should be the first to see this for what it is--an effort to replace the Christian faith with an empty 'spiritual' shell. Biblical Christianity is profoundly spiritual--but Christian spirituality is an expression of Christian truth, not its substitute."
"Hypermodern America has become a collectivity of 'spiritualities' even as the contours of American culture become increasingly secularized. How is this possible? The emergence of spirituality as an alternative to historic Christianity is itself a product of secularism--offering universal 'meaning' without doctrine, truth, or specific content."
Quoting a column by Newsday's James Pinkerton, I previously noted that any kind of religious expression might be beneficial to Republicans and harmful to Democratic aspirations. Is spirituality, however, good for the Democratic Party?
Mohler reports that Leigh E. Schmidt, a Princeton religion professor, has argued that progressives should embrace spirituality. It's a fascinating hypothesis--so interesting that I hope you'll allow me to quote at length, beginning with a description of spirituality in the 19th century, as expressed by an abolitionist turned colonel in the Civil War:
"Schmidt also points to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a radical abolitionist who later served as a colonel in an African-American regiment in the Civil War. Higginson took Thoreau and Algier one step further, arguing that Americans should simply embrace spirituality as a diverse testimony to one fundamental reality. In Higginson's words: 'I have worshiped in an Evangelical church when thousands rose to their feet at the motion of one hand. I have worshiped in a Roman Catholic church when the lifting of one finger broke the motionless multitude into twinkling motion, till the magic sign was made, and all was still once more. But I never for an instant have supposed that this concentrated moment of devotion was more holy or more beautiful than when one cry from a minaret hushes a Mohammedan city to prayer, or when, at sunset, the low invocation, 'Oh! The gem in the lotus--oh! The gem in the lotus,' goes murmuring, like the cooing of many doves, across the vast surface of Tibet.'
"As Schmidt explains, Higginson's vision called for 'a cosmopolitan piety in which religious identities were open, fluxional, and sympathetic rather than closed, fixed, and proselytizing.'
"Schmidt sees a political possibility behind his analysis of America's religious landscape. A proponent of 'progressive' causes, Schmidt believes that American political liberals should embrace spirituality as a means of countering the influence of conservatives and traditional Christians....
"Interestingly, Schmidt points to Sen. Barack Obama, the recently elected senator from Illinois who has emerged as one of the leading lights in the Democratic Party. Obama, Schmidt advises, wants to reconnect progressive politics with religious vision.'"
With all due respect to Senator Obama, LC remains non-spiritual. Mohler concludes:
"Spirituality is all that is left when truth claims are removed. Spirituality represents little more than an effort to claim higher "values" without the demands of truth, revelation, and obedience.
"Of all people, Christians should be the first to see this for what it is--an effort to replace the Christian faith with an empty 'spiritual' shell. Biblical Christianity is profoundly spiritual--but Christian spirituality is an expression of Christian truth, not its substitute."
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